Thermal Technologies

Thermal imaging is the graphic representation of a scene based on the apparent temperatures of the objects in that scene. All objects emit infrared energy, and this energy is focused and viewed by an infrared camera to create a thermogram of the scene. Although objects in a scene can be the same temperature, they often appear to be different temperatures due to the way they emit infrared energy. This property, known as emissivity, affects the amount of energy emitted by the surface of an object. Rough surfaces tend to emit energy efficiently, whereas shiny surfaces are poor emitters and reflect the energy of the objects around them. Consequently, variations in the energy that objects emit create a detailed temperature map of a scene that the viewer interprets.

Thermal Lets You See The Heat
Heat is a form of energy that is transferred from object to object three different ways:

• Conduction, the flow of heat energy through solid bodies
• Convection, the transfer of heat through the movement of a liquid or gas such as water or air
• Thermal radiation, the transfer of heat energy by way of the electromagnetic radiation emitted by an object